A Wirral academy has been given a warning to tighten up control of its financial management after asking for a Government bail out to balance the books.

Oldershaw Academy Trust in Wallasey was issued with the formal notice after submitting a recovery plan that required a loan from the Education Funding Agency to achieve a balanced budget.

Failure to meet the notice’s demands could result in the Government seizing control of the school or ousting the governing body.

The loan request has been agreed, but in a letter to headteacher and accounting officer Steven Peach the agency said the school must improve its financial management and governance.

It raises concerns over:

Failure to balance Oldershaw's budget.

Failure to ensure "robust financial management, control and oversight."

The weak financial position of the trust that required financial support of the EFA.

The trust must now gets its accounts back in the black and repay the EFA its cash by next March.

Mr Peach is quoted in specialist education publication Schools Week as saying the problem related to “cash flow issues” stemming from how its funding was delivered.

He said the school used to receive a lump sum payment.

But after becoming an academy it now receives funding in 12 monthly amounts.

“Where we would usually pay annual services in full, we are now having to pay things on a monthly basis,” he said.

The Oldershaw trust must now supply a report to the EFA every month detailing its financial progress.

If conditions are not met, the EFA said it will “consider the contractual options available.”

The Globe has repeatedly asked for an interview with Mr Peach, or a statement from the trust, but so far neither have been forthcoming.

What are Academies?

Academies are independent, state-funded schools, which receive their funding directly from central government, rather than through a local authority.

Although the day-to-day running of the school remains with the head teacher or principal, they are overseen by individual charitable bodies called academy trusts and may be part of an academy chain.

These trusts provide advice, support and expertise.

They have more freedom than other state schools over their finances and curriculum, and do not need to follow national pay and conditions for teachers.

The Government argues academies drive up standards by putting more power in the hands of head teachers and cutting bureaucracy.

It says they have been shown to improve twice as fast as other state schools.

As of June 2015, there were 4,676 academies open in England with hundreds more in the pipeline.